Switchgear cabinet

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a switch cabinet with at least two profiled rails, on the bottom at the sides, which provide a supporting surface and with a bottom plate that can be laid on and fastened to them. The supporting surface ( 7 ) of the profiled rails ( 1 ) is provided with a track of punched holes, and the bottom plate ( 2 ) can be attached by means of at least one joining element ( 3 ), which can be inserted in a hole ( 8 ) in the track of punched holes and which damages the inside wall of the hole ( 8 ), thereby producing a positive locking.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a filing under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT/EP02/10310 filed Sep. 13, 2002, which claims the benefit of German Application No. 101 47 342.7 filed Sep. 26, 2001,which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a switch cabinet with at least two profiled rails, on the bottom at the sides, which provide a supporting surface, and a bottom plate that can be laid on and fastened to them.

With known switch cabinets of that kind, the bottom plate is generally connected to the supporting surface of the profiled rails using a clamp especially provided for this purpose. In this case, the clamp usually has a screw which takes care of the necessary contact pressure between the bottom plate and the contact surface.

Generally, it can be said of the attachment of the bottom surface in a switch cabinet that, when the switch cabinet is mounted, the bottom plate can be attached in the interior of the switch cabinet and removed again. In this case, the necessary effort to connect the profiled rails to the bottom plate represents an essential criterion regarding the suitability of the joining element. While it is true that the clips or clamps used until now have proven satisfactory in use, they do, however, require an effort because they must be aligned and tightened by hand. In addition, to connect the bottom plates to earth, they usually have to be provided with a penetration opening in order to perform the connection to earth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This object is solved for a switch cabinet of the known kind in that the supporting surfaces of the profiled rails are provided with a track of punched holes, and the bottom plate can be attached using at least one joining element that can be inserted in a hole in the track of punched holes, whereby this joining element damages the inside wall of the hole, by means of which it produces a positive locking.

Therefore, the bottom plate is attached to the supporting surface of the profiled rails only via one joining element, which is easy to insert from above into a hole in the track of punched holes. By selecting a joining element that produces a positive locking with the inner wall of the hole, a sufficient and always uniform fastening force is ensured. Furthermore, the damage to the inner wall of the hole when the joining element is inserted results in an earth contact between the profiled rail, the joining element and the bottom plate. In turn, this simplifies the installation of the bottom plate, because no additional hole needs to be provided for the connection to earth. At the same time, the attachment of the bottom plate takes little space, so that a bottom entry can be created that is larger than with conventional attachment.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the joining element can be formed as a screw with a self-cutting thread. Such a screw fulfils all requirements placed on the joining element; the screw can be simply inserted from above into a hole in the track of punched holes and held there in its position.

According to a preferred embodiment, the width of the bottom plate can correspond to the distance between the opposing profiled rails plus the section of the supporting surface of the profiled rails, each of which faces towards the interior of the switch cabinet and each of which is arranged next to the track of punched holes. By using this measure, a sufficient width of the bottom plate, and therefore a secure support for the same, is ensured.

Advantageously, edge legs, facing away from the interior of the switch cabinet, can be formed on the sides of the bottom plate perpendicular to the profiled rails, leaving open the edge area of the bottom plate that lies on the supporting surface. In this way, installation of the bottom plate is further simplified, because the folded-down legs represent a fastening aid, because an alignment of the bottom plate that is essentially parallel to the track of punched holes is achieved.

Advantageously, the width of the edge legs can correspond to the distance between the profiled rails that lie across from one another. This measure results in an additional fixing in place of the bottom plate, because the latter is already fixed in place within the bottom area of the switch cabinet by the edge legs, which point down and extend between the profiled rails.

In this case, the edge legs can extend downwards at an angle of 90°. Particularly when several bottom plates are arranged next to one another, in this way it can be ensured that the legs of the bottom plates do not interfere with one another.

Advantageously, the self-securing joining element and the bottom plate can be coated with zinc. This measure has proven satisfactory in application, also particularly regarding the connection to earth.

According to another embodiment, three bottom plates can be arranged on the supporting surface, parallel to one another. Because it is possible to work with shorter bottom plates, the installation is simplified, in turn, because these shorter bottom plates are easier to handle.

In this case, the separate bottom plates can be arranged next to one another at a predetermined distance. Such a gap between the separate bottom plates makes it possible, for example, to feed a cable into the interior of the switch cabinet, without measures that require effort being necessary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in more detail in the following, using an exemplary embodiment represented in the following Figures.

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional view of a section of a lower profiled rail of a switch cabinet, a piece of a bottom plate attached to the lower profiled rail, and a joining element; and

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional representation of the bottom plate area of a switch cabinet with cables fed through.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, a detail of the bottom of an interior of an exemplary switch cabinet is shown in a three-dimensional view. Specifically, a section of a profiled rail 1, a bottom plate 2 and a joining element 3 connecting the rail 1 to the bottom plate 2 are shown.

In this case, the profiled rail 1 has a horizontal supporting leg 4, which has two profiled legs 5, 6 folded so that they extend up at a right angle. The supporting surface 7 is bent off from the inner profiled leg 6, which faces the interior of the switch cabinet, in such a way that it extends perpendicularly to the profiled leg 6 and parallel to the supporting leg 4, towards the profiled leg 5.

Along its entire length, the supporting surface 7 is provided with a track of punched holes 8 that runs parallel to the profiled leg 5. In this case, the separate holes 8 are preferably formed to be round and arranged at regular distances from one another. The track of punched holes 8 is arranged in the section of the supporting surface 7 that faces the profiled leg 5.

In this case, the profiled rail 1 can be formed in a single piece with a side wall of the switch cabinet, whereby the profiled leg 5 would represent a section of the side wall in this case, or as a frame rail that is independent from the side wall and on which a side wall of the cabinet can then be attached.

The bottom plate 2 essentially consists of a rectangular plate 9 that is horizontally inserted into the interior of the switch cabinet and with its edge sections 10 that face towards the profiled rails 1 lying on the supporting surface 7. In this case, the dimensions of the bottom plate 2 are such that the edge area 10 of the bottom plate 2 extends on the supporting surface 7 only up to the track of punched holes 8, so that this track continues to be freely accessible.

The bottom plate 2 is provided with folded edge legs 11 on the edges of the rectangular plate 9 that extend perpendicularly to the supporting surface 7, in one piece. These edge legs 11 are formed by buckling a part of the bottom plate 2, whereby the edge leg 11 is bent down at an angle of about 90° from the rectangular plate 9, facing away from the interior of the switch cabinet. In this case, the edge leg 11 does not extend across the entire edge surface of the rectangular plate 9, but instead over the area formed between the profiled legs 6 that lie across from one another, so that the edge area 10 lying on the supporting surface 7 is left open. Furthermore, the edge leg 11 is preferably formed so that it is somewhat shorter than the profiled leg 6, so that, in the installed state, a gap results between the edge leg 11 and the bottom of the supporting leg 4.

A fixing in place and orientation of the bottom plate 2 is already achieved during the installation by the edge legs 11, which extend between the opposing profiled rails 1 of the cabinet. For additional fixing in place of the bottom plate 2 in the profiled rail 1, it is attached to this one with a joining element 3.

In this case, this joining element 3 is a screw with a self-cutting thread, i.e., the screw is inserted into one of the holes 8 in the track of punched holes and cuts a mating thread in the hole 8 with a thread formed on the screw. In this process, the surface of the hole 8 is damaged. After the fastening, the screw head lies partially on the bottom plate 2 and thus sees to additional pressure force.

Because the bottom plate 2, the joining element 3 and the profiled rail 1 are provided with zinc-coated surfaces, an electrically conductive connection is simultaneously produced between the bottom plate 2, the profiled rail 1 and the joining element 3. In this way, it is possible to apply the same electric potential to these elements.

In FIG. 2, in turn, the lower area of an installed switch cabinet is represented, whereby three bottom plates 14, 15 and 16 are arranged next to one another. The bottom plates 14, 15, 16 in this case extend between the opposing profiled rails 1 of the cabinet. The separate bottom plates 14, 15, 16 can have different widths and can be arranged at a predefined distance from one another. In the representation shown, the bottom plate 14, directly bordering on a switch cabinet wall, and the bottom plate 15, running parallel to the first, are arranged with regard to one another in such a way that an open bottom area-results between the two bottom plates 14 and 15.

In the embodiment shown, this open bottom area 46 is used for feeding through cables 17, which have been fed through to the required point in the interior of the switch cabinet beneath the bottom plates 14 and 15. To this end, the cables 17 can be fed underneath the rail 18 provided on the bottom plate 14 and directly to the intended place, using guides 19 attached to this rail.

Because the size of the bottom plates 14, 15 and 16 and the distance between them can be freely selected, this allows, in a very simple way, cable penetrations to be formed at any place within the interior of the switch cabinet. In this case, the resulting open areas, if required, can be additionally sealed using suitable measures.

As can also be clearly seen from FIG. 2, each bottom plate 14, 15, and 16 is arrested on each profiled rail 1 via a joining element 3. In this way, a connection to ground is ensured for all elements.

While the invention has been described in terms of various specific embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims. 

1. A switch cabinet with comprising: a bottom having opposite sides; at least two opposing profiled rails, on the respective sides of said bottom, each of said rails comprising a supporting surface wherein said supporting surface of each said rail is provided with a track of punched holes; at least one bottom plate configured for attachment to said supporting surface of said side rails, and at least one joining element inserted into one of the holes in the track of punched holes, said joining element configured to damage an inner wall of the hole, thereby producing a positive locking with the supporting surface corresponding to the hole.
 2. A switch cabinet according to claim 1, wherein said joining element is a screw with a self-cutting thread.
 3. A switch cabinet according to claim 1, wherein a width of the bottom plate corresponds to a distance between the opposing profiled rails plus a section of the supporting surfaces of the profiled rails that is arranged next to the track of punched holes and that faces the interior of the switch cabinet.
 4. A switch cabinet according to claim 1 further comprising edge legs formed on side edges and extending substantially perpendicular to the supporting surfaces, said edge legs extending away from an interior of the switch cabinet, leaving free an area of the side edges which lies on the supporting surface.
 5. A switch cabinet according to claim 4, wherein a width of the edge legs corresponds to a distance between the opposing profiled legs.
 6. A switch cabinet according to claim 4, wherein the edge legs extend down at an angle of 90° from a top surface of said bottom plate.
 7. A switch cabinet according claim 1, wherein said joining element and the bottom plate are coated with zinc.
 8. A switch cabinet according to claim 1, wherein said at least one bottom plate comprises at least three bottom plates arranged parallel to one another on the supporting surface.
 9. A switch cabinet according to claim 8, wherein said separate bottom plates are arranged next to one another at a predetermined distance.
 10. A switch cabinet according to claim 1, wherein a joining element is provided on each profiled rail. 